Cook Group helps fund French Lick airport addition

FRENCH LICK, Ind. – A new French Lick Airport terminal to serve the growing number of travelers to southern Indiana’s Springs Valley will be nearly five times the size of the current structure, built more than 40 years ago.

“It kind of had fallen on bad times and is not the image we like to project as we move forward to become a destination location,” said Bill Kimmel, vice president of the French Lick airport board of aviation commissioners.

The airport broke ground Friday for the new terminal, which is expected to measure 3,434 square feet when it’s completed in about four months. The current terminal is only 700 square feet.

Airport Manager Brian Payne said the present terminal simply wasn’t built with present-day needs in mind.

The airport last year had about 10,000 landings and takeoffs by aircraft from 38 states.
“The times are definitely changing,” Payne said. “We’ve got a lot going on here.”

The French Lick Resorts & Casino that opened in late 2006, a Donald Ross-designed golf course, and the restored West Baden Springs Hotel are among the attractions drawing visitors to the remote area about 40 miles south of Bloomington. No major highways run through the valley.

Bloomington-based medical device maker Cook Group, the majority owner in the casino, donated the design work for the airport and some construction costs.

The terminal “is very important for people’s first impression when they come to French Lick by air,” said Steve Ferguson, Cook Group’s chairman. “We are going to see more people coming by air in the future.”